By: Declan Flavin | Follow me on Twitter / X @FlavinDeclan
Did Saturday’s matinee feature what head coach Marco Sturm called a good day for one team and a bad day for the other? Absolutely, but there was one big element that had been missing in recent weeks that the Boston Bruins finally brought back…
This particular element embodies what the entire organization wants out of its roster, and it’s critical that they continue to emphasize it game in and game out. Sturm acknowledged it mid-reply as well, alluding to the topic even after the 10–2 beatdown.
Urgency
Yes, the topic is cliché, but this keyword means everything to a team and roster currently built to rely on one another’s forechecking energy. The group brought it against the New York Rangers, with defenseman Charlie McAvoy pressuring the neutral-zone entries at a perfect time and skaters hounding every opponent breakout.
They hadn’t hammered on these specific details in a decent while, as it’s becoming clearer that the collective units ironically wanted to execute more slowly and hands-off as they succeeded more. Evidence of this can be found in Sturm’s comments asking for more physicality from forward Morgan Geekie to break out of his slump, as well as forward Sean Kuraly speaking about the defensive structure and physicality that lead to offense.
Hopefully, the group won’t repeat the same give-and-take that games of last regular season brought after initially recovering from bad habits. It’ll be on Sturm to fully reverse course on inherent mistakes that seem half-baked into certain forwards, even some of the more skilled ones.
If forward David Pastrnak and the rest of the leadership maintain a high level of urgency in skating and forechecking above all else, the rest of the details should come together more easily. Even a team as skilled and offensively talented as the Rangers couldn’t afford to sleep through a game; today’s National Hockey League rewards early and sustained urgency.
Leave a Reply